1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for confirming label switched path (LSP) connection in a global multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS)-based network, and more particularly, to a method and system which dynamically confirms physical layer—or layer 1 (L1)—LSP connection in order to verify an end-to-end path of the physical layer in a GMPLS-based network without depending on a predetermined transport technique.
This work was supported by the IT R&D program of MIC/IITA. [2006-S-059-01, ASON based Metro Photonic Cross-Connect Technology]
2. Description of the Related Art
Global multi-protocol label switching (GMPLS) provides a control plane by extending an efficient label switching mechanism of MPLS to a physical network layer so that a network can utilize an infrastructure including high speed links. With the introduction of the GMPLS concept, communication devices providing only a transport function in a backbone network are being evolved to provide a switching function. To this end, an Internet protocol (IP)-based signaling protocol is used to support circuit switching of a time slot, a wavelength, and a fiber itself. In practice, when troubles occur after user traffics are switched, the set physical layer circuits are manually confirmed using test devices to detect any problems on the current path. This means that the dynamic connection confirmation cannot be performed for the set L1-LSP.
However, it is hardly said that there does not exist any method of confirming data link connection. For example, there is a method using a link management protocol of the Internet engineering task force (IETF) itself or associating the IETF link management protocol with a neighbor discovery protocol of the international telecommunication union-telecommunication standardization sector (ITU-T). These two methods are valid only in a network using a specific transport technique, and thus cannot be used in a network into which several transport techniques are converged, for example, a network having various LSP hierarchies such as time-division multiplexing capable (TDM) LSP, lambda switch capable (LSC) LSP, and fiber switch capable (FSC) LSP. A connection confirmation using these methods is performed for a physical link in a network based on a synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) or an optical transport network (OTN). The connection confirmation is performed using a trail trace byte of J0 or J1 of the SDH network in the method associating with the neighbor discovery protocol of the ITU-T, and is performed using a trail trace byte called a trail trace identifier in an OTN network. Moreover, since the connection confirmation is not performed on the LSP transmitting the user traffics but performed using an overhead channel in the method associating with the neighbor discovery protocol of the ITU-T, L1-LSP connection cannot be confirmed where the L1-LSP is set according to the signaling protocol.